AP Biology

Advanced Placement course and exam

Advanced Placement (AP) Biology (also known as AP Bio) is an Advanced Placement biology course and exam offered by the College Board in the United States. For the 2012–2013 school year, the College Board unveiled a new curriculum with a greater focus on "scientific practices". This course is designed for students who wish to pursue an interest in the life sciences. The College Board recommends successful completion of high school biology and high school chemistry before commencing AP Biology, although the actual prerequisites vary from school to school and from state to state. This course, nevertheless, is considered very challenging and one of the most difficult AP classes, as shown with AP Finals grade distributions.

Students are allowed to use a four function, scientific, or graphing calculator. The exam has two sections: a 90 minute multiple choice section and a 90 minute free response section. There are 60 multiple choice questions and six free responses, two long and four short. Both sections are worth 50% of the score.

Score2013201420152016201720182019202020212022202355.5%6.6%6.4%6.6%6.4%7.1%7.2%9.5%7.4%15.0%14.3%421.6%22.4%22.1%21.0%21.0%21.5%22.2%22.7%19.4%23.1%23.0%336.2%35.2%35.9%33.6%36.7%32.9%35.3%36.9%32.4%29.7%27.2%229.3%27.1%27.5%28.8%27.5%28.5%26.6%24.1%30.0%21.6%23.6%17.4%8.7%8.2%10.1%8.4%10%8.8%6.9%10.8%10.5%12.0%% of scores 3 or higher63.3%64.2%64.3%61.1%64.1%61.5%64.7%69.1%59.2%67.9%64.4%Mean2.882.912.912.852.902.872.933.042.833.113.04Standard deviation1.011.051.031.071.031.081.061.061.091.211.23Number of students203,189213,294223,479238,080254,270259,663260,816233,444230,527237,338239,470